currybetdotnet Newspapers archive

The Daily Mail site redesign: Part 5 - Sports section
Over the last week I've been reviewing the Daily Mail's recently revamped website. There have been some highs, like the innovative use of celebrity RSS feeds, and lows, like the heavy download footprint and annoying content preview overlays. Today I wanted to finish by looking at a section of the site which has been transformed for the better, and in the process demonstrates that the Daily Mail is really beginning to understand ways to utilise the power of the web...

Read the full post - Published June 28, 2008 in Daily Mail, Newspapers, Web

The Daily Mail site redesign: Part 4 - Hovering preview
I've been reviewing the recently updated Daily Mail website design. So far I've been impressed with some clever RSS feeds and some enticing ways of promoting the message boards. However, I've also been concerned about the very long loading times over dial-up caused by the sheer weight of the pages. I first reviewed the new design a couple of months back when it was a 'beta', stressing the new features that I liked. There were a couple of things that...

Read the full post - Published June 27, 2008 in Daily Mail, Newspapers, Web

The Daily Mail site redesign: Part 3 - Story layout and download footprint
This week I've been writing a review of the Daily Mail's new website design - concentrating on some of the aspects of navigation, the message boards, and their innovative use of celebrity-led RSS feed categories. Today I want to look at the individual story pages and the index pages that lead to them. Story pages The whole point of the re-design is, of course, to get more people to visit the site for longer, in order to get more eyeballs...

Read the full post - Published June 25, 2008 in Daily Mail, Newspapers, Web

The Daily Mail site redesign: Part 2 - Message boards
Yesterday I started looking at the Daily Mail's recently redesigned website, concentrating on some of the navigation aspects, and looking at the provision of RSS feeds. Today I wanted to look at an area that they themselves are calling 'new' and 'improved' - their message boards. Message boards Whilst some national newspapers have been indulging in tit-for-tat spats over what gets moderated in their user-generated content areas, the Daily Mail has set about re-vamping theirs. Comments underneath article still work...

Read the full post - Published June 24, 2008 in Daily Mail, Newspapers, Web

The Daily Mail site redesign: Part 1 - Navigation & RSS
Way back when I first started the currybetdotnet blog, the Daily Mail was one of the first newspapers to get its own category, as I alternated between writing about BBCi Search and having a go at the Mail's coverage of things like London's telephone numbering system. These days, I try very hard to keep my honest appraisal of the Daily Mail's site functionality apart from my occasional irritation with the editorial coverage in the paper of things like games and...

Read the full post - Published June 23, 2008 in Articles, Daily Mail, Newspapers, RSS, Web

The Daily Mail's moral stand over 'Emo' protests
If I had been eating my cornflakes when I read the Daily Mail's statement about the recent protests over its coverage of the 'Emo' music scene, I'm fairly certain I would have choked on them. The Daily Mail defended its coverage: "The Daily Mail's coverage of the 'Emo' movement has been balanced, restrained and above all, in the public interest." They also claimed their articles had used: "calm and un-sensational language" You might find that hard to reconcile with a...

Read the full post - Published June 3, 2008 in Daily Mail, Music, Newspapers

Introducing the Euro 2008 edition of Chipwrapper
Last year I produced a special version of my Chipwrapper newspaper search engine to celebrate the Rugby World Cup, and so it only seemed natural to follow suit for this summer's big football event - Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland. Today I've put live the new Euro 2008 edition of Chipwrapper. As ever, Euro 2008 Chipwrapper comprises of a search engine, some feeds and some other bits and bobs to help you find content about Euro 2008 from...

Read the full post - Published June 3, 2008 in Euro2008, Newspapers, Search

There is the BBC's new media overspend...and then there is Google
Yesterday I bookmarked a piece on The Guardian's site which gave Edward Roussel from The Telegraph the chance to put his view on the BBC's massive new media 'over spend'. There are some good contributions from Jemima Kiss and Emily Bell in the comments, and the whole thread is well worth a read. Roussel makes the point that the BBC's new media budget is greater than the digital budget of all UK newspapers put together, and that it threatens to...

Read the full post - Published June 1, 2008 in BBC, Daily Telegraph, Google, Newspapers, Popular, The Guardian, Web

Measuring the interactivity of the Greek press online
"The development of a solid, interactive online journalistic culture is hindered by journalists who view themselves as the mediators between the authorities and the public. Journalists see themselves gatekeepers, filtering what is newsworthy and what isn't. Such responsibilities provide to some prestige and status. Different levels of interactivity undermine the 'we write, you read dogma' of modern journalism" No, not the manifesto of Andrew Keen's mythical newstopia, but part of the conclusion of a fascinating piece of work published by...

Read the full post - Published May 25, 2008 in Greece, Newspapers, The Guardian

Newspapers and the movies: The future
The challenge of 'new' media Yesterday I was looking at what I see as parallel challenges and developments within the movie and newspaper industries. New Media has provided a complex array of challenges to traditional media activities, but I think the impact on film and newspapers can be gathered together under two broad themes - an attack on revenue generation, and an attack on 'attention'. Attack on revenue generation The movie industry argument about revenue is a simple one. The...

Read the full post - Published May 23, 2008 in Newspapers

Newspapers and the movies: The past

Published May 22, 2008 in Media, Newspapers

Here we go again...not that bloggers vs journalists debate

Published May 21, 2008 in Blogging, Media, Newspapers

"Can you trust a media blogger?"

Published May 20, 2008 in Blogging, Media, Newspapers, Popular

Newspaper widget review: Facebook Applications

Published May 14, 2008 in Daily Telegraph, Newspapers, The Sun, Widgets

Newspaper widget review: Google Gadgets

Published May 13, 2008 in Daily Telegraph, Google, Newspapers, The Sun, Widgets

Newspaper widget review: Yahoo! Widgets

Published May 12, 2008 in Newspapers, Widgets, Yahoo

A 'guest' review of the Miami Herald site

Published May 8, 2008 in Newspapers

Looking at the 'new and improved' Telegraph news section

Published May 7, 2008 in Daily Telegraph, Newspapers

'Sorry - this page cannot be found': How newspapers handle 404 errors - Part 2

Published May 6, 2008 in Daily Telegraph, Newspapers, The Independent, The Sun, The Times

'Sorry - this page cannot be found': How newspapers handle 404 errors - Part 1

Published May 5, 2008 in Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Daily Star, Newspapers, The Guardian

At last, some varied 'popular' search terms on the Express site

Published May 3, 2008 in Daily Express, Newspapers, Search

Can you trust going to a 'Can you trust the media?' event for a good debate?

Published May 2, 2008 in Media, Newspapers, Radio, Television

Lies, damned lies, and motoring statistics in The Sun

Published May 2, 2008 in Newspapers, Politics, The Sun

OMG! They are not searching for 'Princess Diana' anymore at the Daily Express!

Published April 30, 2008 in Daily Express, Newspapers, Search

Chipwrapper and the Ofcom PSB review

Published April 26, 2008 in Newspapers, OFCOM, Search

How many British newspapers use sitemap.xml to help search engine indexing?

Published April 24, 2008 in Newspapers, Search

Newspaper "Site Search Smackdown": Round 6 - Google vs The Search Engine All-Stars

Published April 13, 2008 in Google, Microsoft, Newspapers, Search, Yahoo

Newspaper "Site Search Smackdown": Round 5 - The Newspapers vs Google

Published April 12, 2008 in Google, Newspapers, Search

Newspaper "Site Search Smackdown": Round 4 - The Daily Express vs The Times

Published April 11, 2008 in Daily Express, Newspapers, Search, The Times

Newspaper "Site Search Smackdown": Round 3 - The Guardian vs The Mirror

Published April 10, 2008 in Daily Mirror, Newspapers, Search, The Guardian

Newspaper "Site Search Smackdown": Round 2 - The Telegraph vs The Independent

Published April 9, 2008 in Daily Telegraph, Newspapers, Search, The Independent

Newspaper "Site Search Smackdown": Round 1 - The Daily Mail vs The Sun

Published April 8, 2008 in Articles, Daily Mail, Newspapers, Search, The Sun

Google hijacks traffic from newspaper site search

Published March 31, 2008 in Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Google, Newspapers, Popular, The Guardian, The Sun, The Times

Postcard from Macau #8: David Beckham in Hong Kong

Published March 26, 2008 in Football, Macau, Newspapers, Travelogue

The Daily Express is back on the McCann case

Published March 25, 2008 in Daily Express, Newspapers

The online fall-out of the Daily Express apology to Madeleine McCann's family

Published March 19, 2008 in Daily Express, Google, Media, Newspapers, Search, Web

Postcard from Macau #1: Selling adverts in the Chinese 'free' press

Published March 16, 2008 in Articles, Macau, Newspapers, Travelogue

Chipwrapper goes to church

Published February 23, 2008 in Blogging, Newspapers, Search

Reviewing The Independent's re-design for the Press Gazette

Published February 18, 2008 in Newspapers, The Independent

Some very British reporting of the Chania court case

Published January 26, 2008 in Greece, Media, Newspapers, The Guardian

Metro solves the mystery of Heath Ledger's death

Published January 23, 2008 in Newspapers

Now the Daily Express RSS feeds are in Latin

Published January 15, 2008 in Daily Express, Newspapers, RSS

Reflecting on reflections of a Newsosaur

Published December 30, 2007 in Blogging, Newspapers, Search

Biblical Christian names still out-number Mohammed for Britain's boys

Published December 21, 2007 in Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Newspapers, The Sun

British newspaper robots.txt files

Published December 6, 2007 in Newspapers, Web

The Sun's broken RSS still affecting Chipwrapper one month on

Published December 5, 2007 in Newspapers, RSS, The Sun

ACAP - flawed and broken from the start?

Published December 2, 2007 in Newspapers, Popular, Search, Web

How accessible are Britain's online newspapers? Part 11 - Feature chart and scores

Published November 20, 2007 in Accessibility, Newspapers, Web

How accessible are Britain's online newspapers? Part 10 - Methodology

Published November 19, 2007 in Accessibility, Newspapers

How accessible are Britain's online newspapers? Part 9 - Daily Star

Published November 16, 2007 in Accessibility, Daily Star, Newspapers, Product review, Web